14. Expert Insight for Restaurant Industry Leadership: Navigating Reviews | Ken McGarrie

This episode of Restaurants Masters is hosted by Ken McGarrie, co-founder of Korgen Hospitality. The author of The Surprise Restaurant Manager, McGarrie has helmed many successful restaurants, bars, and entertainment-based venues for over two decades. Ken has helped launch new concepts and train hospitality leaders throughout the United States and Canada. In part three of his three part series on insight for restaurant industry leadership, McGarrie gives valuable tips for managing your restaurant’s reviews.

McGarrie suggests these tips on taking every opportunity to embrace reviews and improve your restaurant’s ratings:

-Avoiding the lazy manager table touch.
-Understanding why people post reviews.
-Not playing detective to determine the legitimacy of the review.
-Realizing it is not about being right, it is about disappointment.
-Acknowledging the level of passion it takes to write a long one star review.
-Changing the communication and making the discussion private, one on one.
-Never mention the star rating.

“When you reach out, never focus on the star rating itself, focus on the philosophy for why people feel that they have to reach out and for their level of disappointment they experienced and you will be able to recover them each and every time,” says McGarrie.

Check out the episode above to learn more expert insight on navigating reviews in the restaurant industry. Also be sure to listen to McGarrie’s part two of Expert Insight for Restaurant Industry Leadership where he talks about management communication strategies. For more industry education listen to the Restaurant Masters Podcast!